Slimming World: Week 4

On to week 4 already! It seems to be going so quickly! I’m feeling a lot lighter on my feet and my clothes are noticeably looser now. I think I may have to go clothes shopping soon! It’s a good excuse to anyway! This week has been slightly less busy than last week, and up to now I’ve still been sticking to the diet as much as possible. With the occasional treats here and there! There was only one day where my meal plan didn’t go so well and I’ve written it all down below.

Making good food for my breaks at work is still something I’m sorting out, but I am looking into different things to take with me. Particularly breakfasts as I work a lot of morning shifts. Some of the cereals I like can be quite high in syns. For example, weetabix and cornflakes are much lower in syns than most cereals. But at 6 syns per serving, I find that almost half of my syns get used up in the morning. Weetabix is a Healthy Extra though, so I won’t be giving them up completely! I’ve been looking into syn free breakfasts, so that I can have a few more syns in the afternoon and evening.

Overnight Oats

This week I decided to try something that fellow slimmers have been raving about: Overnight Oats. I think the reason it’s so popular is because it’s ridiculously easy to make! You put in one small layer of porridge oats then another layer of fat free natural yoghurt and then put some forest fruits on the top. Then you just repeat this process of layering until your happy with the amount that you’ve got. After that, you leave it in the fridge overnight to give the oats time to soak in the yoghurt. Then it’ll be all ready to eat in the morning! It’s really delicious and fills you up nicely so you don’t feel hungry for a while afterwards. This then prevents you snacking! So unbelievably easy! This is one that I’ll be taking with me a lot for those morning shifts!

I haven’t really tried anything else new this week. To tell you the truth, I’ve been quite lazy! I think that’s down to long shifts (which have been up to 12 hours just lately) that have made me reach for the easily cooked foods. But the good thing is that whatever I’ve reached for has always been on plan. So even if I just fancy a plate of chips, I make sure they’re homemade using potatoes and low calorie cooking spray. Fry light is an absolutely essential ingredient which I’ve been using on most of my food as a replacement for oils. As a 1 calorie spray you can use as much as you need for frying and baking etc. It’s completely syn free!

Muller Light yoghurts have been a godsend to me just lately. They are totally syn free and have only 0.1g of fat per 100g. My favourites are the smooth toffee flavoured ones, which is strange because I really don’t like toffee that much. This yoghurt however, has a really mild and creamy taste to it and feels like you’re eating something much higher in calories. But you’re not! I also like the cherry flavoured ones too, I’ve made them permanent part of my weekly shopping list! It’s great for a quick dessert or a mid afternoon snack.

Muller Light Smooth Toffee

At the weekend, I was a bit naughty and may have possibly gone out for a burger with my boyfriend! Well see, it wasn’t really all my fault (that’s what I keep telling myself anyway!) as the place we went into in hope of a nice steak was fully booked! So me and Luke thought, ‘What do we do now?’. He suggested a burger bar in the city centre and despite everything inside me being torn between yes and no, I gave in! After all it had been a long time since I’d had a burger that wasn’t made at home or part of the slimming world range. I sat rationalising all of these points whilst I was sat at the table! I went for the least fatty burger I could see on the menu, one that didn’t have cheddar or fatty sauces. It still had a white bun and chips though! But by the time I started eating it, I didn’t care! To help burn the calories off, I went for a nice long walk with Luke and Ollie the next day!

I’ve been thinking about Christmas this week and wondering how I’m going to handle it. It’s difficult because I ordered my meal for the work christmas do weeks before joining slimming world. My friends and family are likely going to be eating unhealthily over the festive period. Plus there’s probably going to be lots of chocolate around!  So much deliciously bad food! My guess is that I’ll just have to be good during the days that I don’t have plans and then be naughty whenever I do! I feel like there should be some wriggle room around this time of year. I think our consultant is going to talk to us about this in group later.

What I imagine Christmas dinner will be like this year! 😛

1 1/2 pounds off this week which is better than what I was expecting! I was very close to my 1 stone award this week, but I’m just 1 pound away from it! I’m not unhappy though as I got this little surprise! Slimmer of the Month! I found out that they give this award to the person who loses the most weight in the space of a month and it was me! I’m really happy as it means that I’ve worked harder than I thought! I hadn’t realised that I’d lost the most this month so it’s given me a boost!

This week I’m determined to get that 1 stone award! It’s given me a good goal to set myself for this week and a great amount of motivation! I’m so pleased that the weekend didn’t have as much of an impact on my weight loss as I thought it might! Only 1 pound to go until a whole stone is gone, let’s see if I can do it!…

~ Ali ~